Concerning mods

[Hana]

With the patch (hopefully) coming closer to completion I was wondering if anyone had given much thought to hypothetical situations for our favorite nations that could be used as the basis for a mod. I'm not really thinking of specific stats or units or anything, just concepts. As an example I'll list a couple of ideas I've had. I'm a little unsure as to what can and can't be done with modding yet, and it's just conceptual stuff anyway.

For Marignon, a mod where the priesthood ends up going corrupt. Rather than turning to demons money is their thing. Their priestly powers have been reduced, but they gain more income from tax collecting. It's not exactly much for a drastic makeover mod so it probably needs some work.

The other idea was for a land based Rlyeh, where humans on the surface had started worshipping the creatures of Rlyeh. A few normal Rlyeh units might remain present, but the bulk of them would consist of human cultists and maybe hybrids. They'd possibly receive occassional free troops within their dominion to reflect solitary cultists performing summonings, but may not receive them as quickly as Ermor or CW Pangaea. Because of the generally sanity destroying nature attributed to Cthulhu mythos related creatures their dominion may spread turmoil to neighboring provinces.

[Psitticine]

Just on a side note, the new theme for Ulm (Black Forest) is fun. The patch is suppposed to be released very, very soon now, and I'm curious what everybody's reaction will be to this particular theme. It is an Ulm of a different flavor.

[Gandalf Parker]

You can get started on alot of modding even before the patch. If you download the MODs available on the illwinter site, and look at the old Dom1 documentation about Monster Editing (also available on their site) then you will be able to see what I think is 90% of the how-to.

Plus, alot of things can be done with the .map commands already available if you can creatively work with units already in the game.

One that I did for Dom1 used the fact that Man is almost completely the same as the bulk of the independent units. So I made Man the "King of Independence". Knock out his home sites and he loses almost all of his special units. Give him a god that dies insantly when it shows up. And scatter a dozen man-owned castle/lab/temple provinces all over the map.

Im considering a couple now for the "AI is too easy" crowd (an Ermor, Atlantis, Rlyeh alliance with Ermor on an island protected by the other two) and one for the "Ermor is too easy to win with" crowd (alliances with priestly races. Marignon, TienChi, Man-Tuatha, Pythium, Arcos? some combo of them). Maybe one for the "Ulm kicks tail" crowd that pushes magic up fast.
If anyone else wants to do these feel free. None of them really need the modding ability to do.

[ January 11, 2004, 13:04: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

[Saber Cherry]

Originally posted by Psitticine:
Just on a side note, the new theme for Ulm (Black Forest) is fun. The patch is suppposed to be released very, very soon now, and I'm curious what everybody's reaction will be to this particular theme. It is an Ulm of a different flavor.

Ents! Ents!

I was just thinking about an Ulm mod today, "Ulm Lite", where they wore lighter armor. High quality full ringmails and tower shields, made of lighter and stronger steel... more protection for less encumbrance (but more resources!). Ulm Black Steel seems strong, but heavy and stiff - it can only be made into plates. But replace their Dwarven smiths with Elven smiths... Maybe there would even be special troops with lead helmets and full leather armor woven with silver thread, to boost their magic resistance above average...

I'm also thinking of a "Stone Age" theme. Ulmians remind me of Neanderthals=) They'd have a size-3 trampler, the guy rolling a giant stone wheel. Such high technology would be pricey, though... or maybe he'd be a nation hero instead...

[ January 12, 2004, 06:28: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ]

It's not nice to tease us, Parrot.

I mean come on, we've been waiting for the patch for nearly a month and you come along and ask the question before it comes out?

Tsk, tsk, tsk.

Polly needs a muzzle!